Graphics

Jason Turner, Graphic designer, Disturb Media
Jason Turner works with ’the biggest nerds in London’ at digital design group Disturb Media in east London. ’This frees me up to create graphics that I could never do on my own,’ he says.

At Disturb Media he has designed the website for a Swatch and MTV tie-up – big clients for a 2008 graduate. Turner joined Disturb Media a year ago after spending four months at poster outfit Give Up Art, where he created graphics for bands and gig nights, including designing bespoke fonts – a particular area of interest for him.

’The biggest shock of my life was going into my first year at university and discovering that the first module was in typography, which is an unbelievably demanding discipline because it is so rule-bound,’ he says.

He describes the satisfaction of being part of a ’massive university with lots of departments that allow you to make things properly for the first time – printing it all yourself, getting a finished product for the first time – it’s so good to be hands on’.

Turner admits to learning a valuable lesson at a Cut & Paste live graphic design event, which has a battle format. ’I made it to the final, but I didn’t win because I was messing around with the crowd – it was a lesson in being overconfident, and taught me to knuckle down when you want something,’ he says.

For the future, Turner hopes to continue to create his own fonts, work at Disturb Media and explore photography, his other passion, tying it into his graphics work in the styles of Stefan Sagmeister and Julian Vallee.

Ian Weir Programme director of BA Graphic Communication Cardiff School of Art & Design
’Jason Turner was an interesting
student to work with as he always challenged conventions and crossed boundaries across a range of media. This led to many stimulating group discussions with his peer group, which helped others to push their work further than they might have otherwise. Despite this healthy lack of conformity, Turner never forgets that he is a communicator first and foremost, and always considers his target audience and the experience of the viewer.’

Ben Seary, Designer, Browns
After freelancing at Pentagram as a junior, Ben Seary has landed a full-time position at Browns, where he is working on projects for Jerwood, The Wapping Project Bankside and creating an annual report for Hiscox.

’I want to make things more understandable for people, and am always thinking about how I can develop or improve things, which is really why I went into design,’ says Seary.

In his spare time, he runs a small singles label with friends called Hit Club, which provides another outlet for his creativity. Seary designed the label’s visual identity, and creates the bands’ record sleeves.

’I’ve always enjoyed going into old vinyl stores and looking at all the record label identities and the on-body templates,’ he says.

He describes the Hit Club typographics as ’distorted and experimental’. Inspired by art and film, he hopes to experiment with moving image in his work in the future.

Seary plans one day to have his own graphic design consultancy. ’This is my ultimate dream, but in the meantime I want to develop what I’m doing and improve and learn and meet interesting people,’ he says. ’I really enjoy working with people and trying to make sense of and communicate their ideas visually, while also still making it look really amazing.’

Malcolm Garrett, Applied Information Group , Visiting professor, University of the Arts, London’I met Ben Seary’s work before I actually met him. His work tells you how much he enjoys design, how much he cares about his work and how much he likes to work with people. You can tell that he is aware of his own talents and wants to develop them, to achieve better results. You see how much he still wants to learn, and that he has the necessary faculties to learn and grow. You get the sense that he knows which direction he wants to go in, even if he doesn’t quite know where this will take him.

This is why he is a rising star.’

Jaki Jo Hannan, Team assistant, AMV BBDO
Australian-born Jaki Jo Hannan marks 2006 and a college assignment as the moment she became an illustrator. Her new media graphic design tutor asked the class to interview people in the creative industries and then find a way to present those interviews. Most of her class mates created documents, but Hannan made a pop-up book using illustrations based on quotes. Pulling on tabs buried in the pictures would reveal the quotation and part of the interview. ’This pop-up book represents my approach to illustration, as I like people to have their own emotional response to my pictures, and then if they want to find out more information I will tell them,’ says Hannan, who goes by the name Jaki Jo in her guise as an illustrator.

Her second university illustration project, 16 self-portraits, was set by D&AD, and netted her a first-prize Yellow Pencil in the Student Awards – as well as a mentor in the shape of awards judge and illustrator and artist Paul Davis.

But Hannan ’s proudest moment came last year when The Guardian commissioned her to illustrate a cover for its Work section. ’That was such a dream. I just wrote them an e-mail and they asked to see my portfolio, which I hear doesn’t happen very often,’ she says.

Now working at ad agency AMV BBDO as a team assistant, Hannan is training to be an art producer and enjoys the inspiration she finds in other illustrators, designers and photographers’ work that she helps to commission.

Ultimately, Hannan would like the chance to create more bodies of illustration work and mount an exhibition. ’I would call myself a design artist, as I think my work is such a mixture of the two,’ she says. But for now, she adds, ’I am just really enjoying the journey and where I am today.’

Laura Woodroffe, Director of education and professional development, D&AD
’Just over two years ago a D&AD Student Awards jury was blown away by Jaki Jo Hannan’s ’intellect, shockingly perverse mind and wonderful use of colour’. Two months later she blew away another crowd of people at the New Blood Pecha Kucha, her performance adding the qualities “charismatic”, “extrovert” and “hilariously funny” to the list of her attributes. There is no way that someone of her personality, confidence, charm and downright talent isn’t going to go far.’